From Kevin Bohn
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - One of the nine U.S. attorneys whose firings sparked a political uproar during the Bush administration is getting a second chance at the job.

After being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, for several months, President Barack Obama is nominating Daniel Bogden to again hold the post of U.S. attorney for Nevada.

"I am extremely honored that President Obama has nominated me," Bogden told CNN in an e-mail message. "I sincerely appreciate the opportunity this nomination presents for me to return to public service ... so I can again pursue justice on behalf of the citizens of Nevada and the American people."

Bogden is one of four picks for U.S. attorney posts the White House announced Friday.

From Arwa Damon
CNN
(CNN) - Three American tourists are believed to be in Iranian custody after they may have strayed across the border from Iraq during a mountain hike, Kurdish officials told CNN Friday.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it was checking into the reports but could not confirm them.

The four Americans - two of them students in Syria - traveled from Syria to Turkey and then into Kurdistan in northern Iraq, arriving at Irbil on Tuesday, according to Peshrow Ahmed, spokesman for the security manager of Sulaimaniya, where they arrived Thursday after driving from Irbil.

All four spent the night at the Nirwan Hotel, according to the owner of the facility. Three of the group left early Friday in a taxi for Ahmed Awa near Iraq's border with Iran, planning to hike in the mountains there, Ahmed said. The fourth member of the group was ill and stayed behind.

The taxi driver dropped the three off near the border and returned to town, he said. The group was in contact with their companion in Sulaimaniya until about 1:30 p.m. Friday, when they reported they were "surrounded by Iranian soldiers," Ahmed said. No further communication was received.

Officials in Sulaimaniya are meeting to devise a strategy to bring the hikers home safely, Ahmed said.
– CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.

(CNN) - The body of world boxing champion Arturo Gatti will be exhumed so that a second autopsy can be performed at the request of the man's family, a coroner in Quebec, Canada, said Friday.

Jean Brochu said said two pathologists will conduct the autopsy on Gatti's body, but the results will not be released for several weeks.

"This is an exceptional situation," he said in a written statement.

Gatti was found dead on July 11 in a rented condo in Brazil, where he was vacationing with his wife and their young child.

Brazilian authorities on Thursday ruled Gatti's death a suicide, according to local media reports, but Brochu said the boxer's family had asked for a second autopsy.

By Charley Keyes
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Obama administration has made no decision on whether to remove Sudan from a list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday, a day after another administration official spoke in favor of its removal.

Sudan is hoping to improve diplomatic ties with the United States, which is now reviewing how best to deal with that government and the crisis in the nation's Darfur region, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million forced to fell their homes.

"We have made no decision to lift the listing on the terrorist list of Sudan," Clinton said at the State Department during a picture-taking session Friday. "As you know, there is a very intensive review going on within the administration concerning our policy toward Sudan, but no decisions have been made."

On Thursday, the Obama administration's special envoy to Sudan made headlines saying there is no evidence to keep Sudan on the terror-sponsor list. Envoy Scott Gration said at a Senate hearing called the terrorism designation "a political decision" and said it is hindering his work.

He said lifting sanctions against Sudan would allow heavy equipment and other assistance to flow more easily to people desperately in need.

The State Department denies there is any split on Sudan policy inside the administration.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) - Jurors in the corruption trial of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana ended their second day of deliberations without a verdict Friday, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria, Virginia, said.

A federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on June 4, 2007, on corruption charges, about two years after federal agents said they found $90,000 in his freezer. Authorities said the cash was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on video.

Closing arguments by defense and prosecution attorneys ended Wednesday. The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for about three and a half hours Thursday and five and a half hours Friday, said Peter Carr, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

The trial began June 16. The jury will resume deliberations Monday morning.

By Charley Keyes
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Saudi Arabia on Friday bluntly rejected a call for step-by-step moves toward Middle East peace, an approach supported by the United States.

The United States had hoped that the Saudis would announce "confidence-building measures" that would break the current impasse and lead to a new round of talks.

"Incrementalism and a step-by-step approach has not and - we believe - will not lead to peace," Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said at the State Department Friday after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Temporary security and confidence-building measures will also not bring peace. What is needed is a comprehensive approach that defines the final outcome at the outset."

In a brief question-and-answer session, Clinton rejected suggestions that the Saudi stand is a setback to U.S. efforts to spark new momentum in the Middle East toward direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

From Arwa Damon
CNN
(CNN) - Three American tourists are reported in Iranian custody after they may have strayed across the border from Iraq during a mountain hike, Kurdish officials told CNN Friday.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it was checking into the reports but could not confirm them.

A senior Kurdish official told CNN that four U.S. tourists had entered Kurdistan in northern Iraq from Turkey, staying in Sulaimaniya for about two nights. Three of the tourists traveled on to a tourist area near the Iranian border called Ahmed Awa, where they intended to go backpacking.

A Kurdish security official said that the group was in contact with the fourth American, who stayed behind until Friday afternoon, when they told their friend they were lost and surrounded by military personnel speaking Farsi.

Kurdish authorities have received information that the three were picked up by the Iranians and are now in Iran, the senior official said.

(CNN) - An additional 440,000 Honda vehicles are being added to a recall initially announced in November to repair a potential defect in airbag inflation systems, American Honda Motor Co. said Friday.

The recall involves driver-side airbags in certain 2001-2002 Honda Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-2003 Acura TLs, the company said in a news release.

The affected vehicles will require the replacement of the steering-wheel-mounted airbag inflator.

"In some vehicles, airbag inflators can produce over-pressurization of the driver's (front) airbag inflator mechanism during airbag deployment," the release said. "If an affected inflator deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator casing to rupture. Metal fragments could pass through the cloth airbag cushion material, possibly causing an injury or fatality to vehicle occupants."

Honda spokesman Chris Noughtan told CNN's the potential defect has resulted in six known injuries and one known death.

From Gabriel Falcon
CNN
(CNN) - Michael Griffin Harrie, the 29-year-old Auburn University student whose family had reported him missing in Asia, is safe and well in Thailand, his father told CNN Friday.

Harrie called his father from the U.S. Embassy in Thailand.

"My God, you can't imagine. It's just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders," Paul Harrie told CNN. "We are so happy. We are just so pleased. Boy, we were so worried. It's terrific. I've had two nights of no sleep."

The younger Harrie, a veterinary student on a study abroad program, apparently was unaware that his family had reported him missing, his father said. "He went to Malaysia and stayed there for two days. And when he got back (to Thailand), a lady said, 'Listen, you're all over the Internet and the news.'"

He then got in touch with the embassy.

Harrie had sent a message to his family to let them know that he would be staying in Thailand longer than originally planned, and thought the message had gone through, his father said. "He thought everyone know where he was."

By Ross Levitt and Susan Candiotti
CNN
(CNN) - A source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN the state attorney's office believes there were two motives in the home invasion murder of Florida couple Byrd and Melanie Billings - robbery and a contracted hit.

The Escambia County Sheriff's Office has long said that it believed robbery was the prime motive, but that it would explore all avenues.

The source said the state attorney's office is currently working under the belief that most of the suspects in the case believed they were there for a robbery, but that Leonard Gonzalez Jr., who authorities have described as the organizer of the crime, and other yet-unnamed suspects were there to carry out a hit on the couple.

The source said that from "Gonzalez down" it was a robbery and that from "Gonzalez up" it was a hit. The source was not sure of the exact motive behind the hit.

The office of State Attorney Bill Eddins declined comment.